Comparing Saul Indian Horse And Richard Wagamese's Indian Horse

Over the past two centuries, First Nations people have been oppressed by the Canadian society and continue to live under racism. The struggles, injustices, prejudice, and discrimination has played a significant role in the construction and impact of how they are treated and viewed in the modern society. Saul Indian Horse from Richard Wagamese's "Indian Horse" and Chanie Wenjack from Gord Downie's "The Stranger" are the perfect examples of how the belief that First Nations were inferior to the Europeans impacted the Aboriginal generations. However, both of the characters can be compared and contrasted by the following ways. As they both go through the breakdown of family bonds and the traumatic sufferings of residential schools, but they differ

with respect to having the desired goal that they would want to pursue in their lifetime.

Due to the following reasons and other Canada's racist policies towards Aboriginal people, their unemployment and poor education ratios are very high.

The breakdown of family bonds is evidently noticeable in both of the texts. It was a great sorrow to both Saul and Chanie when they were indirectly isolated from their families. As in Saul's case, his parents (brainwashed by residential schools) left him alone with his grandmother, when his brother John perished from an excessive cough. As he describes in the story, "'Heathen,' my mother spat. ‘He is my son. We will take him to the priest.'" (Wagamese 31). Other than his parents leaving him, his grandmother Naomi who he loved the most, also took her last breath in his hands due to starvation and exposure to the harsh weather conditions, on their way to Minaki. Similarly, Chanie Wenjack who decided to escape from Cecilia Jeffrey School and walk 600km to Ogoki Post, to see his family, died just after covering 19km. Being lonely and isolated from his family, he was emotionally forced to risk his life and travel in harsh weather conditions, with only a cotton windbreaker and no food. As a result of diminished family

relationships, both Saul and Chanie are shown to be demoralized and dispirited on their journeys. Due to the feeling of loneliness, Wagamese shows how Saul gave upon his professional hockey career that might have brought a huge change in his life. As he says, "After one night of sitting in the stands, I packed my bag and got on a bus back to Manitouwadge." (Wagamese 166). In other words, Saul's ability to be resilient against the open discrimination by the public and other hockey players comes to an end. Just like Wagamese, Downie also shows a lot of despair in Chanie's life that hinders him from keep pushing on his journey back to Ogoki Post. As he does not look for shelter or food, and just keeps moving, even though he realizes that he will not be able to survive for long without finding something eat or a place to stay. Due to the breakdown of family bonds, both Saul and Chanie lack from the parental support and go through a lot of setbacks that fill their lives with agony and despair.

Other than losing their families, both Saul and Chanie go through the dreadful horrors at residential schools. The residential schools shaped theirs and other 150,000 Aboriginal children's lives who attended the schools, in a way that prevented them from being an Indian. As Saul describes in his story, "At St. Jerome's we work to remove the Indian from our children so that the blessings of the Lord me be evidenced upon them." (Wagamese 46-47). Through this quote, Wagamese is trying to interpret how Saul and other Aboriginal children were stripped off from their Indian culture. Since, both Saul and Chanie went to the residential schools; they share a lot of dark experiences, which they suffered through in their early lives. Being defenseless, they were subjected to emotional, physical and sexual abuse to fulfill the personal desires. Fear also played a significant role in their lives. As it is patently evident in both of the texts -- firstly, how Saul does not speak up against father Leboutilier and prefers to stay quiet, secondly, the fear from past experiences force Chanie to run away and risk his life. As Gord Downie's song "The Stranger" shows his feelings toward the residential school:
"I'm not gonna stop
I'm just catching my breath
They're not gonna stop
Please.

Just let me catch my breath."

Like Chanie, Saul also gets a chance to escape the traumatic sufferings at the residential schools. As he gets adopted by Fred Kelly, on the basis of his magnificent and impressive hockey skills. Therefore, the dreadful horrors of the residential schools played an important role in shaping the future lives of not just Saul and Chanie but all the other Aboriginal children who attended the

schools.

Even though both Saul and Chanie share some similarities, they differ with respect to having a professional dream goal that they would want to achieve. It is believed that humans have been gifted with an unquenchable desire to have dreams of a better life, and the ability to live out those dreams. As in Saul's case, he was inspired by ice hockey, when Father Leboutilier introduced it to the school. Even though he did not meet the age requirements to play for the school team, he practiced on his own. As he mentioned in his story, "Once I'd made sure no one was around, ... Then I'd take the stick and nudge one turd out of the heap and practice moving it back and forth." (Wagamese 61). This quote shows how self-motivated and ambitious Saul was towards achieving his dream goal of pursuing a professional hockey career. Even in such discrimination, his resiliency, and passion towards hockey helped him made his way to the Maple Leafs. Whereas, on the other hand, Chanie just wanted to escape from the dark horrors of Cecilia Jefferey School and meet his family. Chanie with his other two friends executed their escape plan on a sunny afternoon when they were wearing only light clothing. If they had planned it a little better they could have taken along their winter jackets and snowshoes, which might have helped them on their journey. That is the key difference between Saul and Chanie -- Saul did not try to escape from the school even when Lonnie asked him to do so and sticked to his set pathway of achieving his goal, while Chanie never really set out a plan of what he would want to do in future but instead took a shortcut, that cost him his life. Thus, having a goal pathway laid out can be very beneficial in achieving the desired goal.

By reading Richard Wagamese's "Indian Horse" and Gord Downie's "The Stranger," it is evident that even though Saul and Chanie go through the breakdown of family bonds and the dreadful horrors of residential schools, they differ in having the desired goal that they would want to pursue. Firstly, the lack of family support for both Saul and Chanie results in a lot of setbacks that fill their lives with agony and despair. Secondly, the traumatic sufferings of the residential schools played an important role in shaping the future lives of not just Saul and Chanie but all the other Aboriginal children who attended the schools. Finally, having a goal pathway laid out proves to be beneficial for Saul. It is believed that injustices, prejudice, and discrimination against First Nations people have played a significant role in the construction and impact of how they are treated and viewed in the modern society.